Learning from Logistics. How Networks Change our Cities
Book Presentation with Clare Lyster
In the 19th century railroads and canals provided both structure and stimulus for city development. This role has been taken over today by a new species of networks called logistics that curate the global flow of data and products, as the author argues. Flow of material and communication is the DNA of contemporary environments. This development has enormous and partially unfathomable implications for our city fabric. Logistics networks and their complex structure increasingly bear upon many urban spheres.
The author describes the current development and its impact on architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism: Aspects such as today’s hypermobility of both products and people have repercussions in design work and create new paradigms for architecture and urban design. Concepts for the integration of these new issues are introduced by a number of exemplary urban design projects.
Clare Lyster is Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Illinois, Chicago
